Don't be shy
If you are shy for tomorrow
You'll be shy for 1000 days
-- Don't be shy, The Libertines
It had been a week.
A week filled with stress, and frustration. Joining the student government was a tough job. She had to prepare the ceremony for the introductions of the clubs, run around the school gym checking if the clubs needed any sort of help on setting up, and finally clean up after some clubs who had left the mess on the student government. Then when Friday was over, she had to practice her flute, which she was still bad at, do all her homework before Sunday, and make that apology gift.
She sighed as she laid on the floor, sun hitting her face. Next to her was a basket filled with her clean laundry that was already dried. Another task was off her chores list. She groaned a little, causing for Nanako to turn around from the laundry.
"Sakuno-chan are you tired?"
A mute nod that couldn't be clearly seen by Nanako.
"I made some sandwiches for lunch, do you want yours right now?"
"No…I need to finish practicing on my flute…"
A giggle. "How is that going?"
"…Bad."
Another giggle. "You know aunty Rinko knows how to play the flute, she used to play it when she was in grade school. Perhaps she could help you."
"M-Maybe…" she said cheeks turning slightly pink. Sitting up, and looking around she wondered where the older Echizen had gone to. "U-Um … where did Echizen-san go?"
Nanako stopped hanging the laundry, and looked back at Sakuno again. "He was bothering us a few minutes ago, then I told him to go to the school to give Ryoma-kun's lunch to him. He never listens to me though…"
Then a sudden thought appeared in the young woman's mind. "Oh, I bet he's up there, reading those things again…"
Sakuno tilted her head. "Those things?"
Nanako smiled and waved her hands. "Oh nothing, nothing. Sakuno-chan, I know you're tired, but would it be okay if you can go to school, and give Ryoma his lunch he forgot once again?"
"Again?"
"He always tends to forget his lunch whenever he has tennis practice."
Ah-ha! So there was a flaw on perfect tennis player, Ryoma Echizen! Then again, it was a very typical situation…
Practice had gone great that is until lunch time hit the dot. That's when the tennis prodigy realized that he had forgotten his lunch that his mother had made for him.
Again.
This time it wasn't his fault really. He woke up a bit late than he was supposed to, he ate his American breakfast that his mother had made for him although he wanted a good Japanese breakfast meal instead, and then Momo-senpai had picked him up from his house. Actually he had rushed the freshman boy out of his house, since the two of them were already late.
Ah! It was all Momo-senpai's fault that he had forgotten his lunch then! And here he was, looking for a fast-food burger joint to go in. It was all Momo--
Growl.
He was damn hungry. He needed food…
Growl.
Now.
"Hn…"
"Geez Echizen, you should really bring lunch with you after our practice. Still haven't changed have you?" said the merry go lucky Momo-senpai.
Ryoma glared at the older boy. It was all his senpai's fault in the first place!
"Ryoma…kun?"
Hazel eyes looked up to meet chocolate ones.
Short brunette took a sip of her soda as her senpai kept rambling on and on about how unfair the president of the newspaper club was. Her senpai had literally talked for about two hours on how the president of the newspaper club was a jerk, and something to do with a big project that needed to be started and researched. Her green eyes stared at the dark haired senpai.
Why was she stuck with a talkative senpai to start with?
Perhaps she was being used by the evil newspaper president to get her senpai feel more motivated? But motivated on what? She was just a kohai!
"…and he says two weeks. TWO WEEKS! Damn it that doesn't give me a lot of time to come up with an article about anything interesting that's happening at school!" Yanari Yui slammed her fists on the table. "Damn it I have to research…research!"
The short haired brunette sighed. Her green eyes were scanning their surroundings. "Senpai, you're causing a scene."
"I don't care about that right now Mizuki, what I care is having an idea for a damn article."
Yui sighed in frustration and decided to stuff her mouth with French fries. If she was going to go in depression and anxiety then she might as well bring the food to suffer inside her stomach too!
Another sip was taken from Mizuki's soda, but she stopped. "Echizen-san."
Yui's mouth hanged open as she was about to put five fries in her mouth. "Wha…?"
With her index finger Mizuki pointed at something that was outside the restaurant window. There stood two boys; one short with a white hat on while the other one was taller with no hat, and a petite two braided haired girl. Yui blinked her brown eyes, and questioningly raised an eyebrow at her kohai.
"So…?"
"I hear that his tennis is good, so I'm positive he'll have more fans ogling for his attention. Or more like they want to know more about him than they already do."
"And…?"
Mizuki rolled her green eyes. "If you do an article about him, then surely you'll get readers to read that column no?"
"…"
"Yui-senpai?"
"Mizuki-chan … you're a genius!"
She was timid.
She was shy.
She was irritating him once again.
She just sat there, taking small and quick glances up at him.
Ryoma gracefully ate his meal that his mother had made. He took a bite of an egg, and chewed it. It was a very weird to see that his mother had actually made him a Japanese bento. There were no burgers stuffed inside, or spaghetti on the side. It was just a simple dish of rice, pieces of scrambled egg, and slices of fish from yesterdays dinner. It was simple, and he liked it.
"So you just had an extra bento with you Ryuzaki-chan?"
Sakuno nodded mutely. "Y-Yeah."
Momo rubbed his chin having a suspicious facial expression. "You know, that's pretty stra-"
"Here you go."
Ryoma, already finished with his food, gave the red bento box back to the girl. He took a sip of the soda that his senpai had bought him from the fast-food joint they were currently inside.
"Echizen!" whispered Momoshiro harshly to the younger boy. "You're supposed to thank her for the meal you idiot!"
Ryoma raised an eyebrow.
"Echizen!"
His mother made the bento not her, so why thank her?
"If she didn't give the bento to you, you would have fainted right when we were crossing the street!"
Ah right, she had delivered his bento. He supposed a thanks was sufficient.
"Thanks."
"I-It's okay…"
There she goes again, shying away.
"Number thirty-two!"
"Yosh! Food's ready!" said an enthusiastic Momoshiro as he stood up from his seat, and left to pick up his order of burgers he had bought for his friends. That left two young freshman alone at the table.
"U-Um…"
His eyes landed on her. "What?"
"W-Well hopefully your bento wasn't cold…"
He raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't."
"Mou…I could have sworn I spent an hour outside roaming around the city…" she muttered to herself, slightly forgetting that the boy was sitting in front of her.
A sudden thought occurred inside the boy's head. Wasn't his father supposed to be ordered by Nanako or his mother to bring him the bento to school…?
"Oi."
This caught the attention from the two braided haired girl.
"Wasn't Oyaji supposed to deliver this?" he questioned, pointing to the medium sized bento box that was empty. Sakuno carefully glanced at what he was pointing to, and gave a slight nod.
"Yes…but I think Nanako-san said he was reading something. I-I think it might be important…"
His left eye twitched.
This is what irritated him the most.
She was easy to pushover because of her shy and timid personality. She couldn't stand up for herself properly. And even if she did try, it would look really silly to him. Like a funny comic strip he had seen whenever he would go to the bookstore. Looking away from the mousy girl, he pulled the front of his white cap lower.
First things first…
His old man was seriously going to get it today.
Erk I tried my best doing a Ryoma POV. It totally sucks huh? Gah, I can't do males perception! So hard! Oh yeah … I hate doing OC's so bad. Blergh. Hopefully there won't be anymore OCs. I know there will only be one or two more, but I hope one will be enough. So… I shall begin my summer studying Japanese grammar and vocabulary. I can't believe I totally forgot some stuff. D:
Do review! Or no pwning Nanjiro on the upcoming chapters! ;3
